Keller @ Large: 'Occupy' Protestors Not Pelosi Allies
BOSTON (CBS) - I was in the San Francisco area all last week on business, and it turned out to be a very interesting place to be to observe the so-called "Occupy" movement and the local reaction to it.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
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Few cities have more experience with street protests than San Francisco, and the place has a well-deserved reputation as a breeding ground for all sorts of cultural and political changes that soon make their way across the rest of the country.
It is also the home turf of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was saying yesterday that – despite her contempt for the last populist movement to make waves, the Tea Party - she "supports the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment…that change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way…that is not relevant to their lives."
But if Pelosi thinks the protestors are her allies in change, she's dreaming.
First of all, she's one of the "super-rich" the Occupy protestors – along with quite a few of the rest of us – are so disgusted with.
She lives in a luxury home with a spectacular Bay view that 99.9% of us could never dream of living in.
And strolling around a city like San Francisco that is teeming with homeless people just serves as a reminder that Pelosi and other Democrats who enabled Fannie, Freddie and the mortgage-fraud industry share the hall of shame with the Republicans who enabled Wall Street's greed-crazed frenzy.
The Occupy San Francisco protest is confined to the sidewalk in front of the Federal Reserve there, and it didn't seem to making many waves.
Folks I met were far more interested in seeing the Blue Angels air show over the Bay, or talking about the death of Steve Jobs, a super-rich capitalist they all seemed to admire.
Nancy Pelosi can try to snuggle up to these protests if she wants.
But she may find she's every bit as unwelcome a presence in their lives as the Republicans she so detests.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. and 12:25 p.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
